106 



TESTIMONY OF CRAIG J. LINDH 

 BEFORE THE 

 SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES 

 February 26, 1990 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: 



My name is Craig Lindh. I am employed by the Office of 

 Governmental Coordination for the State of Alaska. On behalf of 

 Governor Cowper, I want to thank you for the opportunity to 

 present the views of the State of Alaska on legislative proposals 

 affecting management of the Tongass National Forest. It is my 

 understanding that this hearing focuses on mandatory stream 

 buffers and land designations within the Tongass National Forest. 

 My testimony is limited to those two topics. 



In testimony before this committee last April, Governor Cowper 

 announced the State's support of an alternative to the Tongass 

 bills currently pending before Congress. This alternative would 

 adopt a compromise developed last year by a committee of local 

 elected officials representing a cross-section of Southeast 

 Alaska communities. This effort by mayors and city council 

 members was sponsored by the Southeast Conference, a regional 

 organization of municipal and business representatives. The 

 compromise proposal was formally adopted by the Conference last 

 March. The Southeast Conference addressed the issue of Tongass 

 reform by looking at underlying community interests—economic, 

 environmental and social. While neither perfect nor unanimously 

 supported, this unprecedented compromise comes closer to 

 satisfying the concerns of a majority of affected Alaskans than 

 any other alternative. 



For this reason, the State of Alaska continues to support key 

 elements of the original Southeast Conference package. They 

 include: 



-secretarial discretion in establishing a periodic timber 

 supply yearly appropriation of up to $15 million for 

 intensive forest management; 



-permanent protection from commercial timber harvesting for 

 12 areas identified by communities; 



-creation of a $20 million economic diversification program; 



-modification, rather than cancellation, of the two 

 long-term timber sale contracts. 



